Earlier Monday, U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced the athletes nominated for the first two weekends of Period 3 of the 2023/2024 World Cup season, in Oberhof, Germany, and Goms, Switzerland. There will be three races held at each venue, two individual races and a relay.
The athletes nominated — which, as always, largely overlap with but are not precisely coterminous with those athletes who will actually accept the starts — are listed below. I know from my time talking with athletes in Soldier Hollow earlier this month that at least some people named here will not be accepting these starts. I apologize for being so vague, but this tended to come up while I was just talking with folks informally rather than interviewing them on the record, so I don’t have specifics to share here. Sorry. (Also, in my small defense, note that this is frequently not a question that athletes can or want to answer while they are in the middle of a domestic race week, for imho quite understandable reasons.)
USSS is calling this the nominations for “Period 3,” and identifies both the six North American World Cup races in February, and the eight European races in March, as being in “Period 4.” This is incorrect; per the official FIS calendar, all races between now and the end of February, including those in North America, are in Period 3, while all races in March are in Period 4. I mention this not, actually, to be a pedantic jerk. Rather I want to underscore that (a) there are additional Period 3 races occurring after Goms, on this continent no less, and (b) there will be separate team naming announcements coming soon-ish for both the Canmore and the Minneapolis World Cup stops.
Notably, the selection criteria for the Loppet Cup in Minneapolis hold open potential spots for athletes performing well at World Juniors and U23 Championships, to be held in Planica the week before. Up to 12 men and 12 women will be selected to start for the U.S. in each race in Wirth; up to two of these 12 spots (per gender) can go to athletes with top-six finishes in Planica. As noted, these races will still be ongoing when the Canmore World Cups occur, so USSS will necessarily have to make separate team nomination announcements for first Canmore and then Minneapolis.
The relevant USSS webpage lists the selection date for each remaining period of the World Cup season as “TBD.” Thanks, guys.
Here are the announced nominations for sprint and distance races in the first half of Period 3. Expect relay team starters to be determined on the basis of performance in individual races.
Oberhof classic sprint
Men
- Michael Earnhart (basis for selection: objective) (reason: current overall SuperTour Leader
- Ben Ogden (objective) (8th in Sprint Cup)
- JC Schoonmaker (objective) (16th in Sprint Cup)
- Gus Schumacher (objective) (26th in Sprint Cup)
- Kevin Bolger (objective) (31st in Sprint Cup)
- Zanden McMullen (discretion) (25th in Davos skate sprint)
- Luke Jager (discretion) (1st in classic sprint qual at U.S. Nationals)
- Will Koch (alternate) (1st in skate sprint qual at U.S. Nationals)
- Zak Ketterson (alternate) (qualified for heats in skate sprint at Norwegian Cup earlier this month)
Women
- Sydney Palmer-Leger (objective) (current overall SuperTour Leader)
- Jessie Diggins (objective) (current overall World Cup leader)
- Julia Kern (objective) (6th in Sprint Cup)
- Rosie Brennan (objective) (7th in Sprint Cup)
- Sammy Smith (discretion) (22nd in Davos skate sprint)
- Alayna Sonnesyn (discretion) (1st in classic sprint qual at U.S. Nationals)
- Haley Brewster (discretion) (1st in skate sprint qual at U.S. Nationals)
- Erin Bianco (discretion) (3rd on North American sprint qualifier list)
Oberhof 20km classic and Goms 20km skate
Men
- Michael Earnhart (objective) (current overall SuperTour Leader)
- Gus Schumacher (objective) (20th in Distance Cup)
- Ben Ogden (objective) (25th in Distance Cup)
- John Steel Hagenbuch (discretion) (13th in Östersund 10km skate)
- Scott Patterson (discretion) (20th in Ruka 20km skate)
- Zanden McMullen (discretion) (27th in Östersund 10km skate)
- Luke Jager (discretion) (1st in 10km classic at U.S. Nationals)
- Peter Wolter (alternate) (2nd in 10km classic and 20km skate at U.S. Nationals)
Women
- Sydney Palmer-Leger (objective) (current overall SuperTour Leader)
- Jessie Diggins (objective) (current overall World Cup leader)
- Rosie Brennan (objective) (2nd in Distance Cup)
- Sophia Laukli (objective) (21st in Distance Cup)
- Novie McCabe (objective) (28th in Distance Cup)
- Julia Kern (discretion) (18th in Gällivare 10km skate)
- Sammy Smith (discretion) (23rd in Val di Fiemme final climb)
- Haley Brewster (discretion) (1st in 20km skate at U.S. Nationals)
- Margie Freed (alternate) (2nd in 10km classic and 3rd in 20km skate at U.S. Nationals)
Goms skate sprint
Men
Same athletes as for Oberhof classic sprint, except that the order of Koch and Jager has been reversed from that listing.
Women
Same athletes as for Oberhof classic sprint, except that the order of Sonnesyn and Brewster has been reversed from that listing.
— Gavin Kentch
according to earlier versions of the rules documents and the schedule the season was split into 5 periods with North America being period IV and then post north america being period 5 and if one goes by the system of each different period is split by a week off between them then North America would really be period IV and not a continuation of period III